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Suns Fire GM

Mike Marasco

08 October 2018

The Phoenix Suns have fired general manager Ryan McDonough.

McDonouch, who served as the Suns’ general manager since May 2013, will be replaced on an interim basis by vice president of basketball operations James Jones as well as assistant GM Trevor Bukstein. The team informed their now former general manager of the decision on Sunday before making it public today.

The firing comes barely a week before the NBA regular season gets underway.

Suns owner Robert Sarver said Monday he made the decision to fire McDonough “after much thought and a long evaluation of our basketball operations.”

The organization will focus on preparation for the upcoming NBA season and strengthening its roster in the short term. Phoenix will explore restructuring their basketball front office leadership throughout the upcoming season.

McDonough, who was an assistant GM for the Boston Celtics prior to joining the Suns, took over the franchise in 2013 after it had won 25 games prior and led them to surprising success in 2013-14. The team won 48 games yet missed the playoffs, leading to win-now move that ultimately never came through.

In his second year on the job, Phoenix won 39 games, then it dropped to 23, 24 and 21 games over the past three seasons.

The Suns took Deondre Ayton with the number one pick in this year’s draft and gave Devin Booker a $158 million extension during the off-season. Phoenix has had four straight losing seasons and no playoff berths since 2010.

But roster turnover has never allowed the team to have any continuity, especially when McDonough found himself involved in public trade demands from starters Goran Dragic, Markieff Morris and Eric Bledsoe, who were all traded.

Names that are already being thrown out there as potential replacements include Kevin McHale, who served as a head coach and front office member with Minnesota and Houston, as well as Jones moving up the ladder a rung to take over the job full time.

While many believe that the firing is justified, the timing of it is just baffling. However, there are many fans in Phoenix that are blaming Sarver for the mess the team is in and would have rather seen him gone than McDonough.